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Aktiv Kapital Gift Voucher or Robbery? #stom

Aktiv Kapital Settlement Offer

Here is a letter (Click on Letter to Enlarge) that someone recently received from Aktiv Kapital offering a £940 discount off their debt of £6.268. On the face of it, this would seem like a very reasonable offer from Aktiv Kapital. Maybe in some cases getting a £940 discount if you settle a debt fairly swiftly is good value. However, there are a number of things that I would take into consideration.

How Much is Debt Purchased For?

It would be interesting to know how much Aktiv Kapital paid Lloyds when they purchased to debt? A quick internet search reveals that for example, Arrow Global purchased debt portfolios with a value of £804.7m for £33.4m, 91% of which are underpinned by paying accounts. It is very difficult to kind out the exact figures, as debt companies are not keen to reveal this. Taken from here: http://www.credittoday.co.uk/article/15324/online-news/debt-portfolio-purchases-boost-arrow-global-results

So according to my calculations they paid about £0.04 in the pound for the debt. Actually it took me a very long time to work this out, I thought it was the large numbers that made my calculations wrong. So anyway I got it confirmed by two other sources and they came up with the same number; 04 (four) pence in the pound!

I would guess though that this price can vary?

Paying Off the Debt

So lets say that the debt of £6.268 was purchase at a rate of £0.10 in the pound, just to be fair – but you can be sure that debt ain’t fair!! This works out that they paid about £628 for the debt.

So by accepting Aktiv Kapital’s Gift Voucher of £940.32 (your saving) You can clear the debt of £6268.83 for £5328.51 and you are debt free and saving 15%.

However, Aktiv Kapital paid £628 for the debt plus a discount to you of £940.32, totals £1568.32. You pay off the debt for £5328.51, they make a profit of £3760.19. That to me does seem like an exceptional profit to make from just one debt.

Full & Final Settlement Negotiation

I personally think that once you have been presented with an initial 15% discount, why not tell them that you can not afford this and make your own counter offer much lower? You can see that with a profit of £3760.19 they are being rather greedy. If you do negotiate you can come to much better figure that will still suite both parties.

Just remember, when negotiating make sure that you get it all in writing. It is also a good idea to pay via a third party for additional evidence of proof of payment.

Aktiv Kapital Gift Voucher or Robbery? #stom — 4 Comments

With effect from 18th September 2012, BCW Group Ltd sold the aforementioned account to our client Motormile Finance UK Ltd. We have been instructed by Motormile Finance UK Ltd because your account has been outstanding for some time. It appears that you are unable to make immediate payment of the full balance and with this in mind we can offer you a choice of one of our three easy options to help you get this matter resolved: –

1. Special 40% Discount – Pay just £327.94 to us within 14 days to clear your debt – That’s a saving of £218.63!

3. Pay a fixed monthly instalment at a rate which is within your means. Please call us on 01274 957060 to agree an instalment amount and set up a payment facility.
All you need to do is call us now on 01274 957060 to let us know which option you want to take advantage of and we’ll set things up for you.

If you wish to take advantage of options 1 or 2 you can pay either online or over the phone by Debit/Credit Card.

Thanks for sharing this! I didn’t know that debt could be bought for as little as 4p in the £ – definitely worth negotiating lower. My only worry is that if a creditor accepts a lower offer, perhaps the debt wouldn’t be marked as full and final satisfied?

We did recently have an offer come through from a creditor to say that they would be prepared to settle at 25% less than the balance. The offer was for around £30o and we were looking at ways to see if we could find the money however when we phoned the creditor to double check the offer, they said that the debt would be marked as only ‘part satisfied’ on our record and not ‘full and final’. So we didn’t go ahead with the reduced offer!

Have you come across this before at all? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

In quite often when a debt is settled at a reduced rate, the creditors will mark it down as a Partial Settlement. However I see no reason why this could not also be negotiated as part of the deal – hell it is only a couple of words! The other thing to remember is that it is really the creditor that has the problem and not you, they want/need the money.

Another consideration is when within the overall plan of things, what is settled and how. Your credit history runs for six years. So any problems in the first period will have disappeared by the time you sort the final debt out. It is really a six year window showing from today backwards.

Obviously any thing that you do to reduce your debts will improve your credit rating.

If your credit rating is really important to you, I would suggest that you do an internet search on how to improve it, as there are many tips and trick in doing that. Do not fall for companies offering to do it for you.